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Sunday, June 24, 2012

The young pretender continues to pull the rug from under - SP please desist

This is a
political blog with personal views, which attempts to give something more to
the armchair discussions taking place throughout the country everyday about the
state of the Nation.

I have lately
stated my views on monumental Government incompetence and their way of pulling
the rug from under by the distractions of yet another series of elections, this
time Provincial Councils. Similarly I have pointed out the benefits accruing to
the Government of the pardon given to Sarath Fonseka, which has added to, not
reduced the fractions within the parties opposing the Government. I have also
illustrated the degree to which the media machinery of the Government plays a
part in the misinformation campaign, which is an essential part of staying in
power.

Therefore when
the major opposition party the UNP tries to sort out its grass roots activism
in order to attempt to play catch up with explaining to the people that they have
been had, it is within this opposition that its greatest threat lies. I have
pointed out in the past too, that I believe Sajith Premadasa must be shown the
door due to his behavior, but due to a level of support amongst the rank and
file of the party, that is able to believe in the same misinformation, they
have been hidebound to make such a necessary move.

The UNP has
appointed their organizers to almost all Electorates and given them tasks to
perform at the grass roots to re-energize their lost support, in light of the
need for change from the current direction the country is headed into. In
addition they have also appointed District Organizers assist the Electorate
reps to capture minority votes in those districts and include some of the
communities that Electoral organizers are not able to. So the machinery is set
up and grass roots work has now begun.

I have also
pointed out that the Sajith Premadasa, 'Sasunata Aruna' is a purely personal
campaign of publicity to draw attention to a personal and not party route to
obtain popularity. The problem is that he uses the party members, being the
deputy leader of the party to spread the word of his arrival for this standard
50K donation to a local place of worship. Even within the newly appointed
organizers there are those who are partial to SP and those who are not. This
causes a problem for the party.

It focuses on
the disunity in a time it should focus on unity. One of the requests of the
rank and file to go forward in their quest to form the local grass roots village
level branches is to see both the leader and the deputy on one platform to give
them the ammunition to tell the naysayers, some old time party stalwarts that
the internal divisions of the party have been resolved. This has yet to come to
fruition.

So when in a
time of preparing for the three provincial council elections in September, when
the Sajith faction openly challenges the leadership to win at least one
Council, it is outrageous that at the same time they are internally trying to
intensify the division. The latter means they are all out to destroy the
chances of winning, so why openly challenge?

This is a
further example of the double standards being adopted, and the reason the
government is quietly confident that in a time of extreme hardship they can
still pull it off, as misinformation along with opposition fractious infighting
is going to hand back in a platter all the power it wants to continue their
destruction. Sajith simply is a doing this country a lot of harm in continuing
to drive this wedge.

He must at least
temporarily suspend his divisive Sasunata Aruna campaign as it is a veiled
challenge to the party leadership that he is on his own personal agenda and NOT
the party’s.

The posters
announcing his arrival for Sasunata Aruna donation, put up by an organizer who
supports him in areas that are not part of his territory, and not informing the
organizer in the area is itself is tantamount to creating division. The rank
and file wonders why their local person is not involved. There is an acceptable
order of doing things within a territory in an established party as otherwise
the local people wonder why so and so is not on the poster or if he has been sidelined
in this particular activity.

The problem with
this kind of activity by Sajith, I do not know if he realizes, but someone with
so many years in politics must know that he is creating division and is doing it
willfully. I appeal to him at this state of the nation to desist from treachery
and allow the opposition a chance of explaining their side to the people in a united
stand. The need to express a democratic voice in elections is crucial to the survival
of justice and freedom, that are steadily being eroded. Please put country before
self.